Is this really a move to please the moderates.. the non-religious?

Well, well, well!

What's left for the BN-led opposition in Kelantan to use for ammunition?Kelantan to lift ban on karaoke and snooker, reducing their arguments of the PAS-led government of Kelantan of being anti-social and only concerned with spiritual stuffs, while forgetting about sports, development, culture and the likes.

Anyways, I have no reservation about the lifting the ban on sports related activities, but karaoke lounges are not really a welcomed move.

If it is indeed a real need for this, then I hope he would find ways to ensure naughty stuffs being said about the karaoke lounges in the big cities would not happen in Kelanatan as well!


The Star Online > Nation

Wednesday June 15, 2005
Kelantan to lift ban on karaoke and snooker
BY SYED AZHAR

KOTA BARU: Snooker, billiards and karaoke, which have been banned in Kelantan since 1990 by the PAS-led government, will be making a comeback by the end of this year, under strict conditions.

Local Government, Housing and Health committee chairman Takiyuddin Hassan said the details would be discussed at the executive council level before the go-ahead was given.

“I do not expect that there will be any hassle in getting the green light because we had received many requests to allow such activities to be revived, but had turned them down as it was the policy of the government to ban such activities.

“We plan to impose conditions that only associations registered with the State Sports Council could apply for licences to operate (snooker and billiards games), and that only members would be allowed to play them without any element of gambling,” he told reporters here yesterday.

Such premises would also not be allowed to operate in secluded areas, Takiyuddin said.

The state government had banned snooker, billiards and karaoke on the grounds that premises where such activities were held promoted vice and gambling.

To enforce the law, the government had introduced the Entertainment Control Enactment which allows authorities to take action against those operating such activities.

Takiyuddin said snooker and billiards were no longer categorised as entertainment but as sports, and that was why the government was willing to strike them out of the enactment.

As for karaoke centres, Takiyuddin said the government was likely to issue licences only for those that catered for families.

He said stricter conditions would be enforced to ensure that there were no private rooms and only suitable songs such as nasyid would be allowed to be sung.

“There are lots of nasyid songs in the market and I cannot see why we should not allow families to entertain themselves moderately,” he added.

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